Production year: 2014
Country: USA
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Stuart Beattie
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Miranda Otto, Billy Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski
What did Stuart Beattie feel when he saw the finished version of his abomination of a horror-action-fantasy spectacle? Maybe the Australian writer turned director felt the urge to reject it, like Victor Frankstein felt the urge to reject his monstrous creation. Maybe he realised that beneath its stylish surface the film lacked exactly the thing his protagonist, Adam Frankenstein (Aaron Eckhart) the superhuman creature made of corpse parts, is claimed to lack: a soul. That and a proper screenplay, director, and actors who are not expressionless zombies.
At this point it should be noted that the plot of "I, Frankenstein" is not based on Marry Shelly's literary horror classic "Frankenstein", but it is an adaptation of the Darkstorm Studios graphic novel of the same name by Kevin Grevioux. Only the Creature's horrible revenge and Victor's demise at the beginning of the film is still reminiscent of Shelly's masterpiece. In Grevioux's story, the Creature does not only survive his creator, but he also gets involuntarily involved with a horde of gargoyles and demons. It turns out that the gargoyles are guardians of humankind, and want to recruit the monstrous Adam for their century long war against the demons. At the same time, the demons want to capture Adam, and use him for one of their evil scheme's of world domination. Adam, of course, couldn't care less and tells them all to go to hell. After living two hundred years in isolation, however, he finally gets curious about his identity and ventures into the gargoyle's kingdom, which is set in an anonymous Eastern European city. Upon his arrival the evil demon master (Billy Nighy) and the gargoyle queen (Miranda Otto) start to pester the grumpy brute again. As expected the war between demons and gargoyles and the fight over Adam soon escalates, and the fate of humankind finally lies in the hands of the sullen anti-hero and gutsy scientist Terra Wade (Yvonne Strahovski).
If you think now that this doesn't sound too bad, you are right. Some ideas like the war between gargoyles and demons, strong female characters, and Adam's search for his identity would have had potential. Unfortunately, Beattie is not better than Victor Frankenstein, since even though he managed to breath some life into Grevioux's insipid story, the result is as atrocious as Frankenstein's creature. After all, the plot of "I, Frankenstein" is a patchy mess of recycled storylines, predictable twists, and lifeless dialogues. As if this wouldn't be dreadful enough, the seemingly strong and independent female characters soon turn out to be nothing more than bossy damsels in distress. Especially, Wade's reduction to the protagonist's obligatory love interest is a huge disappointment.
Considering this it comes as no surprise that the promising cast turns out to be drained of life as well. Especially, Aaron Eckhart and Miranda Otto deliver most of their lines with the liveliness and emotional range of a corpse. Only in rare instances it seems that Eckhart at least tries to show that Adam is not so much a cold-hearted, hyper-masculine monster, but rather a tortured soul who is desperately trying to find its place in the world. Similarly, someone should have told Otto that having the same stern expressions throughout the whole film just isn't enough to convey that she is the highest authority of the gargoyles. However, Eckhart and Otto were not the only ones which struggled with their roles. Even the brilliant Billy Nighy fails to impress as demonic mastermind. Yvonne Strahovski seems to be the only one who at least tried to make the viewer care about her character. If only Beattie had not forced her to play the smart but ultimately defenseless love interest, and allowed her to add a bit of wit to her character, she might have convinced the audience that she is more than just another pretty face.
Indeed, one of the film's major flaws is that the director and the cast took the material too seriously. It is supposed to be a graphic novel adaptation after all, not a real life war drama. The absence of wit and humour becomes particularly painful at the story's ridiculous climax at which the film starts to resemble an over-long "Buffy - The Vampire Slayer" episode, only without the TV series's tongue-in-cheek dialogues, comic performances, and kick-ass heroines. The only thing which makes this insipid anti-hero fantasy bearable to watch is its visual style. The film's dark settings and special effects are stunning, in particular, the gargoyles who can randomly change from human form to stone warriors. The design of the demons, though, leaves much to be desired again. In the end, the film's special effects and design are like the Creature's ghastly sutures. They might hold it together, but at the same time they also emphasise that it is the abominable result of an experiment which has gone terribly wrong.
